Labor demands new Bishop investigation

AAP – 27/7/2015

LABOR has accused the Finance department of bias, and is demanding the investigation of Bronwyn Bishop be carried out by another department.

LABOR’S waste watch spokesman Pat Conroy says he has no confidence the department can investigate the Speaker’s alleged misuse of taxpayer funds, after the head of the Finance department Jane Halton reportedly dismissed the scandal as sexist double standards.

He has written to Prime Minister and Cabinet department secretary Michael Thawley demanding the investigation be handed to another department or the Australian Federal Police.

A FORMER Qantas flight attendant has recalled Bronwyn Bishop acting like a “spoilt brat” after she was told she couldn’t get her favourite seat on a plane.

Clayton Long remembers the incident well. The flight from Perth to Sydney, which took place about 15 years ago, was delayed for about half an hour after the Speaker of the House of Representatives reportedly objected to her seating arrangements.

“It was because she (Ms Bishop) didn’t get the seat that she prefers. She likes the front row of business class,” Mr Long told Fairfax.

Bronwyn Bishop’s love affair with charter flights began nearly two decades ago when she was a junior minister in the Howard government, with the now Speaker amassing a near $140,000 bill over four years.

The $139,196.01 outlay is close to seven times the amount spent by two other then-junior ministers — Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey — on charter flights in the same January 1998 to December 2001 period.

Mrs Bishop was junior defence minister in 1998 and spent $20,961.18 in that period. After the October election that year, she served as minister for aged care and spent $118,234.83 before being sent to the backbench in November 2001 after the election.

In contrast Mr Abbott, who served as parliamentary secretary for employment through 1998 and was then promoted to be employment minister from late 1998 to November 2001, spent $24,420.14 in the same four year period on charter flights.

And Mr Hockey, who entered the ministry as financial services minister in October 1998 and served in the role until November 2001, spent $20,202.80 on charter flights.

The figures are based on publicly available documents and do not cover the first 18 months of spending by the trio, in the first term of the Howard government, because the details of individual flights by ministers were not reported at this time.

Fairfax Media does not suggest that Mrs Bishop’s use of these ministerial charter flights was outside the rules that govern the use of entitlements, or that the flights involved travel to a Liberal Party fundraiser, as the notorious $5227 helicopter charter flight from Melbourne to Geelong revealed last week did.

But the spending demonstrates Mrs Bishop’s penchant for charter flights — the cost of domestic commercial flights or special purpose flights operated by the RAAF has not been included — and will place further pressure on the embattled Speaker.

“I can really understand why people are unhappy about this,” Mr Abbott said. “Frankly, I’m unhappy about it as well.”

“She has been a strong Speaker … she has been a strong servant of our country, she has been a good servant of the Coalition and so she does have my confidence, but like everyone who has done something like this, inevitably, for a period of time, they are on probation.”

“That [a no-confidence motion] is one of the tools available. It will be impossible for the government to advance any other issues until they resolve this one,” one senior MP said.

“Once they know what procedures we are set upon, they can prevent it, so we haven’t settled on tactics yet.”

A no-confidence motion in the Speaker is expected to fail because of the government’s big majority, but it will maintain pressure on Mrs Bishop and ensure that her use of entitlements remains the subject of public debate.

Late on Monday, manager of opposition business Tony Burke wrote to Mr Abbott asking him to spell out what the impact of Mrs Bishop’s probation would be on the parliament.

Mr Burke asked how long her probation would run for and whether it would impact on the Finance department’s investigation.

“Given there is no Parliamentary precedent that I am aware of for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to be placed on probation, I ask that you provide further information to clarify how being on probation will impact on the Speaker’s authority over Parliament House and the House,” he wrote.

He also asked what it would mean for her role when Parliament resumed, whether it changed her entitlement reporting responsibilities and whether it affected her salary.

Asked about her spending while a minister in the Howard government, a spokesman for Mrs Bishop said “the Speaker as a minister used all entitlements inside the rules. That figure [of $140,000] is exceptionally less than Mr Tony Burke, who spent between 2008 and 2013 more than $316,000”.

The spokesman confirmed payment had been sent to the Finance Department for the helicopter charter but said that now that Finance was reviewing the two other flights to Nowra and Young, “it is not appropriate for the Speaker or our office to provide further commentary whilst this process is under way”.

“When Tony Abbott was opposition leader he was all about talking about standards of performance and accountability. Now he’s the Prime Minister he seems to be missing in action,” he said

On Monday the Seven Network raised questions over Mr Shorten charging taxpayers more than $1200 for flights and Commonwealth car hire to attend a party fundraising event in Sydney during the ALP leadership contest in October 2013.

A spokesman for the Opposition Leader said Mr Shorten, who was industrial relations spokesman at the time, travelled to Sydney to speak at the Maritime Union of Australia’s National Council, and remained for the fundraiser.

If Bronwyn Bishop claimed trip as official business, she must resign

Date-July 18, 2015 – 6:52PM

EDITORIAL

The grown-ups might be in charge but they spend like trust-fund teens.

Few average Australians could imagine forking out $1352 to “day rent” a hotel room in London until Christopher Pyne broadened their horizons late last year when his travel expenses become public. George Brandis (he of the $15,000 bookcase) also got out the gold Amex in London, spending $1100 of taxpayer’s money on a meal.

Now Bronwyn Bishop tops them all with a 16-day $90,000 trip to Europe, partly to secure a prestigious job for herself, and a $5000 helicopter flight to a Liberal Party fundraiser, arranged by a political lobbyist who is best friends with her adviser.

This government is fond of talking about “its prudent spending”, but who can take it seriously when apparently even the Speaker thinks the age of entitlement may be over for mothers “double dipping” on maternity leave or disadvantaged students expecting the full implementation of the Gonski plan, but not for her. She has not just mixed the government’s message but chopped it, diced it and dumped a bucketful of voter resentment on top.

Joe Hockey clearly understood the political poison the Speaker had uncapped when he distanced himself from her on radio this week, agreeing her expenses were not a “good look” and that the helicopter trip did not pass “the sniff test”. But there was a whiff of double standards about his comments; he spent $20,000 on VIP flights last year to sell his unpopular budget to party faithful (though the expenditure was within those spending guidelines which politicians seem to regularly drive a large jet through).

Bishop’s extravagance only serves to reinforce the image created by the Treasurer’s statements about poor people and cars, housing and good jobs, and the casual excesses of other ministers; that this is a government out of touch with the world beyond VIP flights, corporate pay packets, and $1000 hotel rooms and meals.

Nor does Ms Bishop’s record as Speaker do more than disappoint. Supporting her candidacy, the Prime Minister said he wanted to restore dignity to Parliament: “That means a Speaker who can … act without fear nor favour … someone who is as tough on the government as on the opposition.”

Even allowing for the “inherited acrimony” of the Rudd-Gillard years and an opposition’s natural tendency to push the boundaries, Ms Bishop has not met the job description. Of 400 MPs ejected from Parliament during her time, 393 have been ALP members. Ms Bishop has not withdrawn from party room meetings, has hosted party fundraisers in the Speaker’s suite and appeared on Q&A defending government policies. She has brought the impartiality and integrity of the Speaker into question.

Ms Bishop admits the helicopter flight was an error of judgment but insists claiming the cost was within the rules and the speaking engagement was part of her job as speaker. She said paying the money back was the biggest apology she could make. Not good enough. She is the ultimate arbiter of parliamentary behaviour. The highest standards must apply.

Though there is an element of political gamesmanship and even payback in Labor’s approaching the federal police, it is right to demand Bishop produce the documents claiming the chopper excursion expenses. If she claimed it as official business, she must resign. Not to do so would cement the government’s reputation for hypocrisy and damage the standing of Parliament.